Colorado’s Justin Gaethje wins UFC lightweight title in historic White House main event

No matter how you felt about it, the UFC event on the lawn of the White House will be remembered as one of the biggest spectacles in sports history, and the guy who capped off the night is a proud Coloradan!

Justin Gaethje, who has trained and fought out of Denver for more than a decade, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history Sunday night (June 14), stopping Ilia Topuria by fourth-round TKO on the South Lawn of the White House to claim the undisputed UFC lightweight championship. Topuria’s corner stopped the fight at the 5:00 mark of Round 4 at UFC Freedom 250, the first professional sporting event ever held at the White House.

Gaethje’s Colorado roots run deeper than his Denver training camp. The Safford, Arizona, native came to the state as a recruit at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where he wrestled for the Bears from 2007 to 2011. As a junior competing at 157 pounds, he became UNC’s first Division I NCAA All-American wrestler since Larry Wagner in 1970, finishing seventh at the 2010 NCAA Championship after knocking off the No. 8, 9, 10 and 12 seeds in the bracket. He was a three-time NCAA qualifier, a Western Wrestling Conference first-team selection and the NCAA West Regional champion as a freshman. UNC inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020 — years before he would reach the sport’s biggest stage. After graduating, Gaethje never left Colorado, transitioning to MMA and planting himself in the Denver fight scene for good.

Gaethje, 37, was introduced to the crowd as “fighting out of Denver, Colorado, by way of Safford, Arizona” — the same billing he’s carried since relocating to the Mile High City to train under longtime coach Trevor Wittman. Gaethje trains at ONX Sports and Easton Training Center in Denver, and the partnership with Wittman, who founded the Grudge Training Center in Wheat Ridge before moving operations to Arvada, has been the backbone of his career.

A massive underdog entering the fight, Gaethje told Joe Rogan in the Octagon after the win that he knew he would need to survive the early rounds before his durability took over. “My durability, my tenacity, and my heart will carry me through those first couple rounds,” he said. “And nobody can outwork me in rounds three, four, and five.” Rogan called it “one of the greatest fights I’ve ever called in my life.”

Gaethje earned $825,000 in post-fight bonuses, taking home both Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night. In the post-fight press conference, he noted he has been an underdog in at least 11 or 12 of his 16 UFC fights and holds a 9-2 record in those spots. “I was counted out so bad,” he said. “I’ve said it from day one — I’m a promoter’s wet dream. And I proved that tonight.”

The title is the crowning achievement for a fighter who has called Denver home since linking up with Wittman’s camp. Gaethje is a former BMF champion and two-time interim UFC lightweight champion who now adds the undisputed belt to his resume. When asked about retirement, he said he had promised his mother he wouldn’t make a decision on fight night.